Powys Council's budget for last year ended in the black, the authority has revealed.

The authority ended the 2019/20 financial year £1.46 million above budget – £880,000 ahead of where it had expected to be in February – and has used the opportunity to squirrel away £3 million into its reserve accounts to help it deal with the major financial impact of coronavirus.

Several departments were overspent by millions of pounds – but this was offset by other departments staying within their budgets, and not spending all their money.

Children's social services were £4.65 million in the red, the highways department £1.67 million, and the finance department itself overshot its budget by £227,000.

But a £6.8 million surplus in corporate activities, plus other above-budget outcomes in areas such as commissioning and digital services, helped the council to finish the year with a positive sheen to its balance sheet.

Head of finance Jane Thomas said: “Although the overall position is pleasing to report, the variances within the budget do not demonstrate the robust delivery of the budget plan.

“The council can only ensure its financial resilience with the consistent delivery of services within budget, successful delivery of planned cost reductions and the delivery of an accurately profiled capital programme.

“Without these fundamental elements the council has had to realign its budget plan during the year in order to maintain a balanced budget and limit the impact on reserves.

“This flexibility cannot be relied upon in future years.”

Ms Thomas explained that this year’s budget had been designed to fix problems from the past including undelivered savings/cuts from before the Covid-19 pandemic emerged.

In the last financial year, PCC had planned to make a total of cost reduction/cuts of £21.69 million, but only £15.83 million were actually delivered by the end of March.

Of this, £1.475 million was rolled over into the new financial year.

The overall budget is worth £255.1 million.

Last year's budget will be discussed by the council's cabinet on Tuesday.